Swim Lessons

The boys are taking swim lessons this summer. It is Noah's first time and he loves them so much that in his bedtime prayer he made sure to thank the Lord for swim lessons! The life of a child is so simple! These pictures are only of Noah since Jake skipped swimming last week to attend Bible School. I will post some pictures of him later on (I have to be a fair mom!).

Cute

Today I walked into the living room to find this:

The mess was no surprise - they are always making a "house" with the couch cushions and blankets. Today Jacob was the "dad" and Noah was the "son" and Jake was reading his Bible to Noah. It was so cute. Noah was sitting and listening intently to his big brother while Jacob, very seriously, told him the Bible stories. Sigh, man they are cute sometimes... :)

Deals, deals, deals!!!

Okay, I was so excited about this that I just had to post it! In my last post I told you that I have been getting into the world of coupons. Well, today I went to the grocery where I purchased $60 worth of groceries. After sales/promotions and coupons - get this - THEY PAID ME $1.70 AND I got a $10 certificate to use towards my next shopping trip!!!! Wow - why was I not doing this before?!?! Bargain shopping is so fun!

Poor,

neglected blog... I started out with such excitement but I guess it wears off after awhile. My mind has been filled with other interests lately - mainly a little thing called coupons! Naphtali
mentioned to me that she found some great sites for printing and using coupons. It has taken some work, since I am new, but I just got back from the grocery store and I think it is paying off! Thanks Napht!!!
On to more exciting things! We are lucky to have alot of great places to hike around here. Tonight we went to a place called Morongo Canyon Preserve. This place is neat because, although it is in the middle of the desert, it is a swampy marsh and actually has water flowing through it. The green trees next to the water are always in such contrast to the desert around it. How do two differents worlds co-exist? God is an awesome creator!
Also, in the middle of the hiking trail there is an old, rusted out car. I have NO IDEA how it got there. The trail is too narrow and surrounded by rocks and trees to have driven there. My guess is that it fell off the cliff above a long time ago. How it got to the top of the cliff - I dont' know! There is now a boulder right where the engine used to be! Someday I will learn the story of how it got there.
Anyways, the boys always have a great time hiking wherever we go. Noah usually ends up on Brian's shoulders since he likes to stop every 10 seconds and today we decided to have a race out - Jake and I won but in fairness to Brian he did have a backpack and kid on his shoulders! Still, I think he let us win....

July 4th

We spent our holiday with the Norris' here at our house. We had a great time - Brian had a 3 day weekend which was odd!!! But we were grateful and tried to make the most of it. The kids loved the fireworks and are already asking when we will get to see them again! How do you explain a year to children?! Hope you all had a great holiday too!

A summary

Of our trip to Minnesota....Playing chase with Dedo during a stop at Crown to see Peter
Celebrating Brian's birthday
Just being SO cute!!!
James preaching to a captivated audience
A photo stop at Jay Cooke park
Brian and Noah at Gooseberry Falls
Jacob and Maddie in Duluth
Our only family photo that we took on the trip! That's Duluth behind us
Trying to catch some fish at the lake

We had a great time!!!!!